Thursday, April 14, 2011

Language Skills–Stage 2

Mike has been building an impressive vocabulary recently. I would guess that the number of words that he can speak is now over 100. He’s full of the single word sentences. Some of his favorites are mommy, daddy, Izzy, Foxy, Harper, Avery, fish, bath, outside, pacey, hungry, eat, juice, milk, fish, and snack.

He has started learning body parts. He’ll say eye and point to his eye, or teeth and point to his teeth, or nose and stick his finger up his nostril up to the second knuckle. Or sometimes he’ll say nose and try and stick his finger up YOUR nostril! We try and tell him that he can pick his friends – and he can pick his nose – but he can’t pick his friend’s nose (or his mommy’s or his daddy’s).

He has recently been picking up animal sounds – words like woof, meow, baaaa, grrrr, and roar. You can ask “what do cats do” and he will say “Meeeeoooooowwww” or “what do sheep do” and he will say “baaaa baaaaaa”.

His all time favorite (and his answer to nearly every question you ask) is “no”.

Us: “Mike. Are Izzy and Foxy dogs”?

Mike gets a serious look on his face as if he is seriously pondering the question. Then he looks up and answers “no”.

Us: “Mike. Do you love mommy?”

Again – the pondering expression for a moment or two followed by his answer “no”.

Us: “Mike. Do you like playing with your toys?”

Pondering look followed by “no”.

Us: “Do you like the word no”?

Ponder for a moment. “No”.

Us: “Is ‘no’ your answer to everything?”

“No”.

Us: “Do you want some yogurt?”

Quickly, with no hesitation – “Yo! Yo! Ungree! Ungree! Nack!” all in conjunction with the sign language for hungry, eat, please, and more. This loosely translates into “Yogurt? Why come to think of it, I am a little hungry and could use a small snack. Thank you mom!”

But recently, he reached a new milestone in language development. He has begun to put words together.

Which brings me to the biggest smile I’ve ever had. I recently walked in to Mike’s playroom where he was happily playing with his toys. He looked up at me with his bright blue eyes, smiled his big seven-toothed smile and said “hi daddy”!